Kitsune In Command
by UekiKosuke
Summary: No one in the ANBU suspects that their strong courageous leader to be non-other than Naruto. Naruto acts like a clutz and a complete idiot to cover up the fact that he's got skills to fight. Will Kakashi ever find out who's behind the mask of the Kitsune.
1. Kitsune Taichou

.

A/N: Well... this is my first Naruto fic so please be nice ^^;;  
I might get some of the jutsu's messed up, because it's been so long since I have read Naruto xP hehe  
Anyways, please enjoy =)

oh and ps: Pairings will be decided as the story goes, but it's most likely going to be SasuNaru or KakaNaru ^^

.

WARNING!: Before you read this, note that if it does become KakaNaru, there will be pedophilia and if it offends you in any way, kindly press the back button, or close this story =)  
Ratings might go up as well to 'M' depending on how the story goes ;)

.

* * *

.

**_Chapter one_**

**_._**

A tall brown haired man walked into the room with a mask on. There were four others, excluding the Hokage and the tall man himself.

"Listen up. This will be your new Captain since the previous one died on our most recent mission." The Hokage announced panning the room.

"I'm not going to follow some guy I just met." The Viper snapped.

"Well you better, because he's the best we've got." The Hokage snorted and pointed at the man with the Fox mask. "Get familiar with each other. Because I got better stuff to do than introduce everyone of you." And with that, the Hokage left, leaving the 5 with ANBU masks on.

"Well, I'm Raccoon" The Raccoon stepped forward and offered his hands which the other decided to Ignore. He looked at the person next to the Raccoon.

"I'm Dog." The Dog just nodded in acknowledgement and looked at the one next to him.

"I'm Wolf." The Wolf didn't bother looking up from his porn book.

"I'm Viper and I'm not going to recognize you as my captain before testing out your skills." The Viper glared.

"I'm Kitsune, I will be your captain for who knows how long." The Kitsune looked at each individual. "Our first mission is to have a one on one spar with me. Meet me at the field." With that, Kitsune left.

* * *

"Did you all finish your homework?" The man up front asked, smiling at his fellow students. He noticed at the back Shikamaru, Chouji, Naruto, and Kiba were all sleeping, leaning against each other. The man twitched.

"_NARUTO, SHIKAMARU, CHOUJI, AND KIBA! WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT SLEEPING IN CLASS?_" He fisted his hair in frustration, but to his surprise, no one bother to even budge.

"Iruka-Sensei, Akamaru ate my homework." Kiba said pointing at the dog nuzzled in his jacket.

"How bothersome…" Shikamaru muttered cracking an eye open.

"Forgot." Naruto yawned.

All eyes were on Chouji who started to sweat. 'Dammit, all the good excuses are taken…' he cursed at himself before answering, "Um… I ate my homework?" The class burst into laughter as the rest of the guys sleeping in the back patted Chouji complimenting him on his original excuse.

Iruka twitched again, and before he could lunge himself at the 4 trouble makers, they all fled out the window laughing at their poor teacher.

When their school was out of their view they slowed down and walked. "My god, Chouji I'm so proud of you my man!" Kiba flung his arm around his chubby friend and couldn't stop laughing. Naruto joined in by flinging his arm around the other side of Chouji.

"Yeah Chouji, I bet you Iruka-sensei even believed you because you're so fa- mmmfff" Before Naruto could say the taboo word Shikamaru slapped his hand on Naruto's mouth and sighed.

"You guys are so troublesome, you know that?" Shikamaru couldn't help but to reveal a smile but the smile immediately disappeared as he peered at Naruto's eyes. "Have you been practicing all night again Naruto?" he asked with concern.

As soon as Shikamaru asked that question, the rest of them stopped walking and observed Naruto's eyes as well.

"Haha, yeah, you know me" Naruto gave them a wide smile and attemted to change the subject which ended in a fail.

"Dude, you're only like what, 8?" Kiba raised an eyebrow and Akamaru barked in agreement.

"No Kiba, you're 8, I'm 7" Naruto stared at his best friends one by one reminding them that he had entered the academy earlier than them. "So, what do you want to do now?" Naruto was in fact aware of the fact that someone was approaching them but decided to ignore it.

"Hm... Anyone up for Ramen?" Chouji's suggested got Naruto excited.

"I'M NOT PAYING~!" Naruto stuck his tongue out and pranced around his friends before he was caught by one of the jounin ninja's.

"Naruto, the Hokage is calling for you." He had white hair which spiked up sideways which also defied the law of gravity. Naruto recognized his voice immediately. Wolf.

"Ehhh? Whyyy?" Naruto whined while the rest of the guys just looked at him enjoying his agony.

"Whatever you did Naruto, the Hokage doesn't seem too happy~" Kiba chimed and giggled, picking Akamaru up from his jacket and placing him gently next to him.

"How bothersome…" Shikamaru che'd and looked away.

"Bye byee~" Chouji mocked, opening his 5th packet of chips that day.

"Comon." The jounin known as the Wolf tugged Naruto and the two of them went to Hokage's office.

* * *

Naruto was now left alone with the Hokage and he was smiling like the idiot everyone thought he was.

"Drop the act in front of me Kitsune." The Hokage eyed Naruto.

"Fine." Naruto said as he performed a jutsu he invented not too long ago which gave the two privacy in the room, and dropped the smile.

"Okay, I'm sending you and you're team on another mission, and it's going to start now." The Hokage explained what the mission was. "There were spies spotted by some of our ANBU teams from the Hidden Rain Village. I want you and your team-mates to finish them off." Naruto nodded once and made a clone of himself. The clone smiled sheepishly and ran out the door screaming, while the real one performed another jutsu which transformed him into someone tall and muscular. He made sure to change his hair brown and took his mask out from his weapons pouch and put it on.

"Understood" Naruto said in his gruff voice and went to his teams meeting place.

* * *

As he expected, everyone was already there waiting for their captain to appear. The Raccoon was sitting on the couch, the Wolf was leaning against the wall reading his usual porn book, Viper was lying down on the other sofa and the Dog was pacing around the room.

"Captain!" all four of them stopped what they were doing and gathered in front of their captain. Naruto scanned through them once and frowned.

"Where the hell is the real Viper?" Naruto snarled through his mask. The other team members looked at Viper who looked puzzled.

"This is the real Viper Captain." The Wolf informed his captain who just snorted.

"Oh really." Naruto said non-differently and kicked Viper, who winced once but disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Sharp Kitsune-sama." The real Viper appeared from the hallway clapping his hands.

"What the fuck are you doing?" The Naruto growled. "We have a fucking mission. Get your head in the game Viper." Immediately the Viper whimpered and stood in front of his angry captain where his clone had been.

"You're such an idiot." The Dog muttered before Naruto explained what their mission was.

"So our mission is to kill the spies from the Hidden Rain Village." Naruto created more 4 more shadow clones of himself. "Each of you will be going with one of my clones. Raccoon North, Wolf East, Viper South, and Dog West; now go!"

"HAI!" they replied as they scattered to their different positions. The real Naruto followed the Wolf.

Not before long, Naruto came across an unfamiliar chakra pattern. Naruto reached out his hand and tapped the Wolf, who stopped and waited for his captain's command. Naruto motioned for Wolf to follow him and sped towards the chakra.

The moment they spotted the two spies, Naruto threw his kunai aimed at his head without hesitation and molded Chakra into his hand to perform the 'rasengan' to punch a hole through the other's heart. The Wolf stared in irritation.

"Kitsune-sama, if you could kill them yourself, why did you ask us to come?" The Wolf grumbled but Naruto just smirked.

"So you could finish him off." Naruto Smiled and left, leaving the Wolf behind.

* * *

.

_A/N: So... How was that? =)_

**_IMPORTANT!_** = **I'm looking for a beta-reader for this story. I've written up to chapter 2 and in the middle of my 3rd one.  
I'm bad at writing descriptions and writing actions.  
So if anyone is willing to help me, please PM me ^^  
Thank you~ =) **

_Hope you enjoyed that and reviews will be appreciated ^^_


	2. Graduation

_A/N: Well.. Here's the next chapter XD_  
_Special thanks to **Windschild** for reading over my stuff and correcting it XD *bows down* _

_._

_

* * *

_

Chapter 2

.

[A few Years past, and it's now time for Naruto to graduate.]

"To graduate, you must perform the bunshin no jutsu!" Iruka announced.

Naruto groaned and slapped his forehead. He could never perform the bunshin no jutsu if his life depended on it. He had always been better at making real bodies.

"Everyone wait outside, and when I call you in, we'll test you." Iruka commanded simply. "Everyone out except for Nara Shikamaru."

"Hai!" and everyone left with that.

Naruto grumbled but followed the rest of his classmates.

"Hey I bet Naruto will fail."

"Yeah, he's such a loser… I always wonder how he even stayed in the academy without getting kicked out."

"uh huh, like that time when we were learning-"

Naruto couldn't take it anymore. Throughout his life he's been looked down upon. Did the villagers not think he would've already figured everything out when they all called him 'monster' or 'demon' wherever he went? Naruto sighed once until he heard his name get called.

"Naruto?"

"Hai…" Naruto trudged along behind Iruka.

"Perform the bunshin no Jutsu for me Naruto." Mizuki was sitting next to Iruka.

_Flashback:_

"_Naruto, I believe we have another spy, but I want you to do this as your true self."_

"_Okay."_

"_So I want you to fail the entrance exam again."_

"_WHAT? AGAIN? YOU'RE KIDDING!" _

"_No Naruto, I am not."_

"_Awwwww!" Naruto groaned. _

"_But if you succeed on this mission, I will talk to Iruka and even tell him about you being in the ANBU." The old man said giving Naruto an eye-smile. Naruto's expression lit up immediately._

"_YEAH, BELIEVE IT (A/N: I actually really hate that phrase, but… 0x0…)" _

"… _Don't do that in front of me…"_

"…_Understood…"_

_End._

Thus, Naruto made a pathetic looking clone of himself looking gray and lifeless. Absolutely pathetic. If only they knew he was the commander of the top ANBU…

"Naruto…" Naruto's teacher snapped his pencil in two and was twitching all over. "you… _Fail_!"

Naruto pretended to be pissed and started jumping around like mad.

"Iruka-sensei! You can't fail me _again_!" Naruto whined, taking short glimpse at the nin next to Iruka.

"Yeah Iruka, why not let him pass this time?" Mizuki smiled.

Naruto could tell it was the smile was fake, and it almost looked like a smirk, but he let it pass.

"Mizuki, you know I can't let him pass…" Iruka sighed and called the next person in.

Looking dejected, Naruto sat by the tree near the academy and stared at all the other kids with their parents. The adults of the village always gave him that look; the look of pure hatred, and disgust.

"Again with those eyes…" Naruto mumbled to himself playing with the leaves on the ground.

He honestly felt like disappearing from the face of the earth but every time he attempted to do so, the Kyuubi would always heal him, or prevent him from doing so. Eventually, he gave up.

"Ahh, Naruto…" Mizuke stalked over to Naruto who mentally smirked and said to himself 'Let the show begin.'

"Okay, so I got the scroll… It's fake so I have nothing to worry about, but let's read it anyways…" Naruto muttered quietly to himself. Then he started to rant just to make it seem like he was actually reading.

"NARUTO!" A very angry voice rang through the trees, startling Naruto.

'This was not a part of the plan!' Naruto cursed. 'I can't beat that ass single handedly now.'

"Iru… Iruka-sensei?" Naruto sheepishly smiled and rubbed the back of his neck.

'_Shit…Shit…Shit… Mizuki's here!' _Naruto growled.

The sound of Kunia slicing the air reached his ears and without so much as a second thought the blonde shoved his teacher from where he was standing barely dodging the projectiles himself. The kunai thudded loudly against the old shack and it's walls quivered slightly from the force.

"Urgh! Naruto what are you-" Iruka now sensed a new presence. He looked at Naruto, bewildered. 'He… Saved me?'

"Heh! Naruto, you actually knew I was here?" Mizuki smirked aiming one of his giant shuriken at Naruto. Naruto made the best glare he could as he stared up at Mizuki.

"Are you trying to kill me?" Naruto growled.

"Why… Yes I am." Mizuki smiled sweetly and jumped down, landing silently on the muddy ground of the forest floor.

"Mizuki…" Iruka growled as well. The man scrambled to stand between the two, attempting to protect Naruto.

Honestly, Naruto was a bit shocked. All he ever got in his life as the real him were cold stares and unfair treatment, but today… he gets protected.

"Oh my Iruka," Mizuki shook his head side to side as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Protecting the one that killed your parents…" Iruka flinched and quickly glanced at Naruto. "I never knew you'd be so… Low…" Muzuki concluded with a smirk.

"What... What are you talking about?" Naruto stammered,

"No! Don't tell him! It's forbidden!" Iruka shrieked out of desperation.

"You're not even going to tell him why he's been hated all this time?" Muzuki laughed sourly. "That's the least you could do before he dies."

"No… Don't tell him… He's-"

"Tell me what?" Naruto said indifferently. 'This is dragging… I gotta stop this now.' Naruto silently thought. "That I'm the container of the demon fox?" The two chunin's jaws dropped.

'_he knew?'_ They thought in unison.

"You know, the villagers make it pretty obvious they don't want me and that they want me out of village for good." Naruto snorted. "I'm not that much of an idiot, you know?"

Iruka lost the ability to speak. He was stunned beyond imagination. Naruto turned to look at his teacher and smiled. "I'm sorry for not telling you this… But you'll find out soon enough anyways, so let's drop the act."

Naruto quickly pulled out his ANBU mask, clipping it to his belt even as he added chakra to his legs to charge the traitorous Chuunin. As Naruto moved toward him, Mizuke pulled out his weapons and flung the shuriken with deadly accuracy. The man smirked as metal bit skin.

"AHH!" Naruto howled, "Just kidding." And poofed into thin air.

'_Tajuu kage bunshin?' _Iruka could just stare.

"I'm right here you idiot." Naruto jumped out of the shadows from behind Mizuki. His hand moving downwards to chock the man's neck even as the gray-haired Chuunin was turning in surprised horror.

"Ooomf" and the enemy have fainted. The thud of body meeting ground was very satisfying.

"Sorry for keeping this a secret sensei…' Naruto chuckled sheepishly. His hand, coated with bright red chakra, hovered over Mizuki's head for a split second before the coat disappeared. "I don't want anyone else to know I am a part of the ANBU."

"Naruto… Since when…?" Iruka's eyes were now getting teary, and his voice quavered a little.

"The Hokage will explain, let's go sensei." Naruto transformed himself into his usual ANBU captain self, and put his mask on. He easily picked up the two chunin and body-flickered towards the Hokage.

"Naruto?" Iruka let a single tear fall from his eyes.

"Yeah?"

"Congratulations on graduating…"

* * *

.

A/N: I know the story line is a bit different but... thats what a fanfic is right? =P

Reviews will be appreciated :P


	3. Those who judge

**_A/N: Special thanks to Windschild8178 who does an amazing job with helping me write =) _**

**_

* * *

_**

_Chapter 3: Those who judge_

"Naruto, what the hell are you doing here?" A random classmate asked, glaring at Naruto with eyes filled with hatred.

'Those fucking eyes again…' He silently thought, but smiled idiotically and pointed at the forehead protector he had put on.

"Can't you see this?" Naruto puffed his chest proudly. "I graduated as well! _Hell yeah_!" Naruto threw a fist in the air, but as his heel sat off the edge of the classrooms steps he lost balance and fell on his ass.

Kiba stepped forward and offered Naruto his hand, who happily grabbed it and heaved himself up. The four trouble-makers gathered and started chatting about things that weren't important. Conversation that only friends can tread in easily and carefree.

'hm… So the dobe did graduate…' Sasuke mentally smirked and eyed Naruto.

"SASUKE-KUN!" two of the most annoying kunoichi ever delivered out of the academy popped into the classroom and threw themselves on Sasuke.

"GET OFF INO PIG!" The pink one shrieked and pushed the blond one with all her strength.

"NO, YOU GET OFF BIG FOREHEAD!" the blond one started to shove as well.

All eyes were now on the two girls fighting over Sasuke.

'Heh, so that's the last of the remaining Uchiha…' Naruto noted, noticing the Uchiha symbol on Sasuke's shirt. 'Wonder how strong he'll be…"

The door flew open and Iruka came in.

"Okay class, from this day on, you are no longer students of the academy, but now are a genin."

Cheers were heard among the students.

"And now you'll be in teams of 3 with one jonin supervisor."

The entire population present in the class murmured, and excitement filled the class.

"Your groups will be your comrades, your best friends, and your most precious beings." Iruka read out the groups until he finally got to Naruto's group. "Team 7 will be Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke. That's the final group. You'll wait for your teacher to come get you, and until then, you'll wait." Iruka left, leaving his ex-students behind.

Slowly groups of three started leaving and Sasuke's stare on Naruto got intense.

"Do you have a problem with me Sasuke?" Naruto glared at Sasuke, but the only response he got was a smirk.

"Why on Earth would I care about an idiot like yourself?" Naruto held back the pulsing chakra on the verge of exploding.

"Yeah Naruto, Sasuke doesn't have time for idiots like you." Sakura stuck out her tongue at Naruto and giggled to herself. Naruto sunk back into his seat and the conversation was over again.

"Sorry I'm late" A tall man with silver hair trudged into the classroom only to be greeted by glares. He was wearing mask which only revealed one cold black eye.

"YOUR LATE!" They all yelled in sync and stared at each other. Kakashi gave the three genin his famous eye-smile and scratched his neck apologetically.

"Sorry about that, I was helping a pregnant lady cross the street." The three stared at their new instructor dumbfounded.

"Yeah sensei, we don't really care about your excuse." Sakura snorted as Naruto rolled his eye's which went unnoticed.

'hm… I don't like that pink one…' Kakashi thought to himself as his eyes drifted onto Sasuke. 'Hm… the Uchiha…' Kakashi's eyes landed on the final member of his team. 'The Kyuubi…'

As Naruto felt Kakashi's eyes land on him, he peaked out of the corner of his eyes to find that Kakashi wasn't staring at him with the same eyes as the others did. Kakashi's eyes seemed to assess him just like he would any another genin.

'I gotta give wolf his credit…' Naruto mentally chuckled and went back to staring at the wall.

"Okay then… Why don't we start with introductions?" Kakashi failed to make himself look enthusiastic.

"Why don't you start with yourself sensei? We don't know what to say." Sakura raised an eyebrow and inched closer to Sasuke who inched away from her.

Kakashi frowned slightly at Sakura's tone. "Okay then, my name is Kakashi Hatake, I don't have many likes, I have many dislikes, I don't intend to tell you what my hobbies are, and I have no hopes and dreams." Kakashi concluded with a smile.

'We only got to know his name…' the three genin sweat-dropped and looked at each other.

"Why don't you go next Naruto?" Kakashi pointed at Naruto who cleared his throat and put on his usual idiotic smile.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, I like Ramen, I dislike the time it takes for the Ramen to cook, I compare tastes of Ramen as a hobby and I will be the greatest Hokage ever!" Naruto folded his arms and nodded, evidently pleased with himself.

'So this one cares about Ramen…' Kakashi sighed and looked at Sakura. "You next."

"My name is Sakura, and I like…" She peaked through the corner of her eyes to glance at Sasuke. "My hobbies are…" She blushed crimson and buried her face in her hands. "My dreams are… Kyaaaa!" She shrieked as everyone just looked at her.

'Pathetic…'

Then suddenly her head shot up and looked at Naruto square in the eyes. "And I dislike Naruto." Naruto pretended to look like he was hurt and huddled himself by tucking his knees up to his chest.

'… The pink one just thinks about love…' Kakashi sighed heavily and turned to look at Sasuke.

"My names Uchiha Sasuke, I like…" Sasuke shot a quick glance at Naruto who chose to ignore it. "I dislike…" He shot a glance at Sakura who now joined Naruto in a world of despair. "I train as my hobby, and I have no hopes and dreams." Sasuke che'd and went back into observing his shoes.

'… Kitsune-sama… What would you have done with them?' Kakashi reminded himself to actually go and ask Kitsune about this. He needed advise.

"Okay, I guess it's pointless to actually do something today, so we'll meet in the training ground at around eight am, don't eat breakfast, or you'll throw up, and don't be late." With that, Kakashi disappeared with a poof.

"…So… Sakura, do you want to go on a-"

"No." Came the immediate reply.

Naruto muttered something about how cruel girls were.

"Sasuke-kun, do you want to go on a-"

"No." Ahh… Karma my sweet lady Karma.

Sakura crouched down and started to draw circles on the ground.

"Naruto, do you want to go on a date?" Both Naruto and Sakura stared at Sasuke.

"… What?"

Sasuke blinked, confused as to why he was getting the stares.

Karma clapped her hands in glee.

_[Later that night in the ANBU headquarters]_

"How rare, you're not reading that book of yours." Raccoon commented giving the Wolf a mock applaud.

"Never mind that, where's Kitsune-sama?"

"Oh? Getting cozy with the captain are we now?" Viper walked over to the wolf and laughed. Kakashi only stared at his comrade, bewildered.

"What the fuck are you guys doing?" The figures present in the room flinched and faced their captain.

"Kitsune-sama." They nodded once and looked up.

"You were looking for me?" Naruto stared at the Wolf.

"Yes."

"Follow me."

Naruto led them into a different room and performed his usual jutsu, which sealed the room to any ease droppers.

"Speak."

Kakashi was surprised at how much caution his captain was taking just to talk to him.

"Yes." Kakashi inhaled once and explained his situation with the three genin he needed to train.

"And so basically, you want to know how to train them?" Naruto raised an eyebrow. 'So the Wolf has issues with kids…'

"Yes, and especially when I'm supposed to be training the Jinchuriki." Naruto flinched and the amusement he had in his voice was replaced with an icy cold one. Kakashi noticed the sudden change in atmosphere. "Is… something wrong sir?" he asked, as he tensed his body.

"No. Nothing is wrong. But you know what Hatake?" Naruto used Kakashi's name to show that he was not happy about this. "When you're in the ANBU headquarters you focus on surviving the missions, fighting, and to show no emotions. You are suppose to be unbiased in all situations. The level-headed observer. It seems you need improvement." Naruto almost hissed out the last part as he turned to leave, leaving the stunned and confused Kakashi behind.

'So… Kakashi was the same as the others…'

* * *

.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed and please review ^^


	4. First Encounter

.

A/N: Special Thanks to **_Windschild8178_** for always beta-ing my work^^

ps: The training scene in the middle of the story is purely written by Windschild8178, so... yeah

Please enjoy =P

* * *

"_Okazaki, don't hang out with that kid." _

"_But daddy… He-"_

"_No buts." _

_The boy slowly got pulled away from me. Again. I don't know how many times this had happened to me. Am I a bad kid? Am I sick? I keep asking myself that but I never got the answers, until one night. _

"_Hey hey, look at this brat. Isn't he the demon?" A guy chuckled and kicked me in the gut, which sent me flying against a wall. _

_It hurt like hell, but I contained my scream by biting my tongue although my willpower didn't stop the tears trailing down my cheeks._

"_Oh yeah… This brat, why don't we just kill him?" The other scary looking man came over to me and held me up by the collar of my shirt. _

"_Please… Don't hurt me…" I begged, hoping the others would just leave me alone. I didn't mean harm to the others, and I've never seen myself as a demon. _

"_Haha!" The guy holding me up laughed and stared at me in the eyes. I shuddered looking at those eyes. Everywhere I went, it was always those same eyes; Cold, Hate filled eyes. _

"_Kid, you're a fucking disgrace to our village." The guy brought his arm back and –_

The moment his hands came in contact with Naruto's cheeks, Naruto bolted up sweating all over.

'Shit, not again…' Naruto groaned and walked over to the bathroom. Splashing water on his face, he looked at his reflection in the mirror. Naruto glared at his reflection showing the same cold eyes he hated. He shuddered once and walked out of the bathroom.

Sitting down on the bed once again, Naruto took out one of the scrolls he always carried around in his pocket and bit his thumb, drawing out some blood. He swiftly ran his thumb through the scroll and muttered.

"Summoning no Jutsu." With a silent poof a red figure emerged from the smokes.

"Naruto-sama." The fox bowed and strode over to where Naruto was sitting. Judging by Naruto's face, he didn't look too happy… and he needed sleep. "Whats wrong Naruto?" the summoned fox nuzzled Naruto's leg only to be picked up by the blonde.

"Am I… Is the only existence I have the demon inside me?" Naruto buried his face into the soft fur of his fox, who just blinked.

"What are you talking about Naruto?" The fox demanded, a frown forming on his forehead.

"Kitsu…" Naruto released Kitsu from his grasp. "Everyone in this town… sees me as a demon… The Kyuubi to be more exact, and there is only one person that actually likes me for who I am." Naruto sighed.

"But what about that Kiba guy or the Shikamaru guy?" The little fox questioned.

Naruto laughed bitterly.

"Well, they don't exactly know about the demon do they?" Kitsu grimaced at the coldness of Naruto's voice and sat down next to him swishing his tail lightly.

"Yeah well… Come on, cheer up!" Kitsu smiled and Naruto couldn't help but to let a smile spread onto his face as well.

"Sure… Let's go to sleep…" Kitsu disappeared with a poof leaving Naruto all alone once again.

* * *

The next morning, Naruto showed up in the training ground much earlier than everyone else just so he could practice. However, Naruto had his ANBU appearance as well as the mask. Just in case Sasuke or Sakura happened to show up early as well.

Naruto took a deep breath, his body relaxing into his individualized taijutsu style with the exhale. Arms held close to his body with elbows pointed outward for a ready defense, but easily maneuverable offense as well. His feet were widely spaced due to the need of hefty balance in back lash and to provide optimum ability to continue his onslaught or dodge in any direction. Power hits were Naruto's specialty. The danger being that it required direct, close combat. He literarily was in the opponents face when fighting.

His fist struck fast and hard, splinters barely leaving bark before another wave of broken pieces joined them in their decent. No chakra necessary. There were no training dummies in training field seven, merely the three stumps, but that suited him just fine. Plenty of tall sturdy trees in the area to use instead. He pitied them a bit.

Every five fist strikes Naruto would alternate between practicing four powerful leg blows. First kick was a crouch and low sweep that if connected would break his opponents ankles but here took out a nasty chunk of wood instead. Second was the knee buster; it required the user to move the left foot back without leaving the ground while the right raises and turns to strike directly against the knee. The third aimed for the ribs and followed the same motions as the second but higher. The fourth attack used through his legs a double hit. Naruto would flip and twist his body around so that both legs slammed into the torso of his opponent, breaking at least four ribs if the person was lucky.

The fifth was tricky because it needed to be done from directly above; Naruto needed to jump high above the opponent which dictated distractions because of the few precious seconds to get into the right position of one leg, it didn't matter which, being raised high enough to strike down on the person's skull. Since he couldn't get 'above' the tree Naruto settled for a sideways angle for this practice session. Harder yes, but just as effective. The series of six by five hits followed swiftly by five more strikes was more than enough to finish off a single poor tree.

After destroying about twenty trees, he finally dropped down and laid down to absorb the sunlight and feeling the cool breeze. A smirk spread on Naruto's face, feeling another presence coming near him. He decided to ignore it and continued to relax.

'What the… The training ground is destroyed…' Sasuke's eyes panned the training ground and landed on the single figure resting under the trees. 'Who the hell…' Sasuke quietly approached the figure. 'ANBU?' Sasuke's eyes wandered around the figure from head to toe. He had a Fox mask on decorated with blue and red stripes, his spiky brown hair was sticking up in every direction, a well toned body was hidden under those ANBU clothes.

"You know kid, it's rude to stare." Naruto chose this moment to speak and get up into a sitting position. Sasuke took a step back and his hand hovered around his weapons pouch.

"Who are you?" Sasuke eyed the ANBU suspiciously.

"That's for me to know, and for you to find out." Without another word, Naruto jumped frighteningly high and landed softly on top of a tree before flitting deeper into the forest. Sasuke only stared after him, a blush spreading across his face.

"Who was that?" He quietly asked himself, relaxing his hand to drop to his side.

* * *

"Sorry I'm late," Naruto wore his usual grin and skipped towards his two team-mates.

"You're not the latest…" Sakura growled but quickly looked at Sasuke and smiled. "But of course, Sasuke-kun was the first one." Sakura's smile faded as his usual response didn't come to her. "Sasuke-kun, you okay?" She asked eyes filling up with worry.

"It's nothing…" Sasuke grumbled, searching for Kakashi.

"Sorry I'm late." Kakashi appeared with a poof greeted by Sakura's and Naruto's glare.

"Sensei?" Sasuke's face lit up as he walked over to his teacher, ignoring the confused stare from the two.

"What is it Sasuke?" Kakashi looked down at Sasuke wondering what his cute little disciple might want to know about.

"Do you know an ANBU with a Kitsune mask?" Whatever Kakashi was expecting, it sure wasn't this. Both Naruto and Kakashi flinched.

"Where did you see him Sasuke?" Kakashi narrowed his eyes and noticed a big hole in the forest where there used to be trees.

"That hole was made by him and he was lying down under that tree." Sasuke pointed at the tree but continued to stare at Kakashi. "You seem to know him. Who is he?" Sasuke asked once more, testing his patience.

Kakashi sighed in defeat. "He is the captain of the most elite ANBU team feared by everyone that knows him."

'That's what they think of me?' Naruto mentally smirked but on the outside, he grunted.

"Yeah right. He can't be that strong. I mean… Kakashi sensei could beat him right?" Piped up Sakura.

Naruto snorted and looked at his team-mate wondering what his answers would be.

"No, I don't think I can…" Kakashi admitted chuckling sheepishly. "He's a leader anyone could depend on… but I think I said something that upset him last time…" Kakashi added the last part mostly as an afterthought but Naruto heard it.

Temporarily forgetting that he was supposed to be a genin he answered in a rough tone, "Don't worry about it…" All three eyes landed on Naruto staring at him blankly. Noticing the stares he was getting, he laughed like an idiot, "Haha, you know, I don't think anyone can stay mad at you that long." Naruto sheepishly smiled and stuck his tongue out a little. Kakashi's blush was concealed by the mask he always wears and coughed.

"Well… thank you Naruto, but now, onto the test." Kakashi pulled out two bells from his back pouch and smirked behind the mask. "All you have to do is, get the bell from me."


	5. The Task

_A/N: Uh... Aha...hahaha... XD;; I'm back? :3 I forgot that I had this chapter written so... :3 Here it is! _

_WARNING: This chapter wasn't beta'd so most likely... it will suck o-o;, Also, characters WILL be OOC and... the ratings might go up? :3_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters..._

_

* * *

_

**The Task.**

"What?" The three genin stared at their teacher.

"All you need to do is get these bells from me. Here are two bells, I'll set the time for… 12 and those who can't get the bells get no lunch." Kakashi eye-smiled and pointed at the three tree stumps, "Instead of lunch, you'll get tied to that, and not only that, but we'll be eating in front of you."

'… That's the…' Naruto's eyes widened.

[Flashback] – Please refer to chapter one when Naruto first joins Kakashi's team as the captain.

_"I'm Kitsune, I will be your captain for who knows how long." The Kitsune looked at each individual. "Our first mission is to have a one on one spar with me. Meet me at the field." With that, Kitsune left leaving the others with no choice but to follow him._

_Facing his new teammates on the training grounds, Naruto took out four bells from his weapons pouch and jingled them in front of his very confused teammate's face. _

"_I want you to try and take these bells from me." Naruto couldn't really tell what their faces looked like, but he could guess it was priceless._

"_You're screwing with us aren't you?" Viper hissed through his mask getting nervous glances from everyone. Naruto kept a straight face and stalked towards Viper. _

"_Namiashi Raidou." The use of his real name startled him. "If you have anything against my methods, I suggest you get the fuck out of my team and go to another one." Naruto's cold tone of voice made everyone shudder._

"_Sorry…"_

"_How many minutes do we get to get the bells from you?" Wolf asked curiously, his book nowhere in sight. _

"_Until I say stop." Naruto shrugged __and adjusted his headband. "Start!" Naruto shouted and stood in the middle of the training field. As expected, everyone scattered and Hid in the woods. 'Good good…' Naruto complimented his team and trailed his hands into his weapons pouch to take out a shuriken. Naruto cracked a crooked smile and threw his shuriken in the ground somewhere in front of him._

"_Not good enough Wolf!" Naruto laughed and dodged all the shuriken thrown in his direction while he took out some of his own. Wolf emerged from underground and glared at his captain. _

'_How the hell did he know I was there?' He silently asked himself as he went to the trees to hide as well. _

_After a good 3 hours of chasing Naruto stopped running and called out, "STOP" on the top of his lungs. The four others gathered in front of their leader rapidly, panting. _

"_So the little kitties couldn't get the bells…" Naruto tossed the bells in the air and caught it again. _

"_Kitsune-sama, I will follow you as my leader." Raccoon bowed his head slightly and glared at everyone to do the same. The others followed Raccoons example. Naruto looked at them, amused until Wolf spoke up._

"_Kitsune-sama, I don't recognize your voice as one of the villagers… Who are you really?" Naruto stiffened at the question and the rest of his teammates glanced from Wolf to Naruto. _

"_That… is for me to know, and for you to find out."_

[Flashback end]

"But sensei, there are only two bells and there are three of us!" Sakura gloated.

'Thank you for pointing out the obvious…' Naruto rolled his eyes and glanced at Kakashi.

"Well Sakura…" Kakashi sighed hating the pink menace more and more. "You'll just have to figure that out yourself now wont you?"

"I won't hold back…" Naruto chuckled and displayed his usual goofy grin, but his eyes shone with determination.

"Okay then… START!" Kakashi called out and immediately Sasuke and Sakura disappeared into the forest. Naruto however, stood strong in front of Kakashi and pointed at his headband.

"Fight me fair and square sensei!" Naruto bounced up and down while thinking of one of the simplest jutsu's he could perform.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Naruto made the correct hand signals and he duplicated 100 clones that charged at Kakashi all at once.

"Shitt!" Kakashi swore, dodging the cleverly planned assault. He pivoted, and curved his body in ways he never thought he could until finally Naruto seized his attack.

Naruto shook his head sideways, "Tsk, tsk… Still not good enough." And he vanished into the forest.

Kakashi stared at the spot where Naruto was standing just mere seconds ago, gaping. 'Naruto was never supposed to be that strong… and what did he mean by 'still not good enough.'' Kakashi shrugged off his thoughts and focused on his surroundings. He figured that by now Sakura and Sasuke should have had plenty of time to figure out a plan.

And just as he expected, the two jumped out from the tree, together, and attacked Kakashi at the same time.

'Shit! This wasn't supposed to happen!' Kakashi cursed under his breath.

In the end, Sasuke and Sakura got the bells and they passed Kakashi's test by displaying a great amount of teamwork.

"Did you already know about the objectives of this test?" Kakashi asked in short gasps. He never thought he'd feel this tired after a test with a bunch of genins. Naruto however was jumping around, raging about how he didn't get the bell. He ran around in circles pointing and pinned Sasuke down with glares every chance he got, but the others easily ignored him.

Sasuke blinked. "Yeah, Naruto told us." Sasuke stopped his train of thought and thought back to what he just said. 'Wait, Naruto?' He put on his most confused expression and glanced over at Naruto who seemed to have calmed down, but was sulking on one of the wooden poles.

Sasuke wasn't the only one surprised. Kakashi blinked the one eye exposed to the world and eyed Naruto as well. 'He couldn't have actually known… Unless he's…' Kakashi shook his head, attempting to clear his head from this thought. 'It couldn't be…' He concluded.

"Ne, ne~" Naruto whined and jumped down from the pole, grabbing the attention of the other ninja's. "I'm going to go eat ramen at Ichiraku's Ramen shop. Times like this calls a _celebration!"_ Naruto folded his arms across his chest and nodded in satisfaction. Sasuke just che'd and turned to leave, as Sakura squealed and followed behind Sasuke. Kakashi looked up at the sky and thought it'd be best to get to know his students better, so he followed Naruto.

"Sensei?" Naruto eyed Kakashi and looked at him questioningly. Kakashi just shrugged and gave Naruto his famous eye-smile.

"I felt like some ramen myself today." He simply shrugged and walked besides his student. Naruto rolled his eyes and continued to walk since he didn't have the energy to be happy-go-lucky anymore. However, Naruto's new attitude confused Kakashi, and withought asking Naruto stright on, Kakashi knew he wasn't going get any answers.

"Naruto?" Kakashi peered through the corner of his eyes to find Naruto still sulking.

"What?" Naruto relpied grumpily

"Are you okay?" The question threw Naruto off guard. He'd never been asked a question like that before. He'd always get shunned from the world, and only when he was in his ANBU form, would he be actually respected.

"Yeah… I'm fine… It's just-" But before Naruto could finish, he spotted Iruka, and happily waved at him. Kakashi observed the exchange between the two and sliently watched as Naruto happily bounced up to Iruka.

"Naruto!" Iruka grunted as Naruto landed on him.

"Sensei!" Naruto chimed and as he rested his chin on Iruka's shoulders for a hug, he urgently whispered in his teachers hears. "_Kakashi doesn't know yet…._" Iruka got the message the moment it was delivered and held the boy tightly.

"So how was your day Naruto?" Iruka asked Naruto loud enough for Kakashi to hear.

"It was Terrible!" Naruto whined, mocking a cry. "Sasuke and Sakura got the bells, but I didn't!" Kakashi chuckled silently and decided to present himself in front of Iruka this precise moment.

"But you passed my test Naruto." Kakashi placed a hand on Naruto's shoulders.

"No thanks to me…" Naruto grumbled, freeing himself from Iruka's embrace and mocked a glare at Kakashi.

"Well…" Kakashi's chuckle was inturupted by a relativly large boom in the direction of the village's enterence. Naruto glanced at Iruka, aware of Kakashi's presence.

"Um… Shouldn't you go Kakashi-san?" Iruka stuttered, nervously glancing from Naruto to the enterence.

"Yes I probably should…" Kakashi inhaled deeply and with full force, he jumped up, swiftly landing on one of the roofs.

Naruto silently thanked his previous teacher, and dashed towards the highest point in Konoha, because from there, he could see the whole town and locate the intruder. '_Che, this isn't helping…' _ Naruto cursed under his breath and bit his thumb, drawing a little blood from it. "Summoning no Jutsu!" with a silent puff, a familiar bright red figure emerged from the white clouds of smoke.

"Did you call for me Naruto-sama?" Kitsu bowed down.

"Yes, I'd like you to scan Konoha and report to me if you pick up an unfamiliar scent." Naruto calmly instructed Kitsu as he himself completed his usual transformation as a ANBU captain, enlarging his body, his hair changing into a light shade of brown instead of bright yellow.

"Hai." Kitsu took off to the Hokage's direction. Completing Naruto's transformation, he fitted his usual Kitsune mask on his face and took off as well.

"Let the show begain."

* * *

A/N: Please review :3

and I'm looking for a Beta who's good at writing fighting scenes. If your interested, please contact me ^^

-UekiKosuke-


	6. The Visit

_A/N: Yes... Here's the next update! XD Sorry for the lack of updates... yet again... School is seriously trying to screw with me lately =S Either way, I re-wrote this like... 6 times because the first couple were just terrible! =P You would've cried if you read what I wrote, and I'm not exaggerating :3 _  
_So here it is! I hope you enjoy~ =P_

* * *

**_The Visit _**

"Have you found anything yet?" Naruto came to a stop at where Kakashi was. Kakashi stiffened, but realizing it was only is captain, he relaxed instantly.

"No sir." He reported, shaking his head in disappointment. Naruto cursed under his breath, thanked Kakashi and went off to a different direction. As Naruto zipped through the forest, concentrating on the chakra around him, he found the trail he was looking for. There was something familiar about the trail, but he couldn't figure out what was.

Reaching the source of confusion, Naruto sent out a clone to get Kitsu for back-up, and took out a kunai ready to attack in any direction. "Who's there?" Naruto's gruff voice demanded.

"I knew you'd appear." A familiar figure known to Naruto appeared from the shadows with a smirk on his face.

"Gaara!" Naruto's face lit up in an instant, as did Gaara's. Naruto took his kitsune mask off and reverted back into his original self. Gaara chuckled and ruffled Naruto's hair. "Hey!" Naruto started to protest.

"As always, you're the only one capable enough to find me." Gaara tsk'd, "Why not just make you the frickin hokage already?" Naruto chuckled bitterly.

"As if anyone would want to follow a Demon like me…" With a silent 'pop' the calabash gourd Gaara always had on his back released the vast amount of sand contained in it and threateningly directed it at Naruto.

"Naruto, don't forget…" Gaara retracted some of the sand pointed at Naruto but continued to glare. "I'm a Demon container as well…" Naruto held up both his hands in surrender and huffed.

"So why are you here anyways?" Naruto cocked his head sideways and asked, genuinely confused. "There isn't anything going on at your village is there?"

"No," Gaara crossed his arms across his chest and sighed deeply. "I'm here mostly because I miss my best friend." Naruto's mouth twitched upwards, as did Gaara's and the two burst into laughter. The two had known each other for a while now. Their first encounter was when Naruto was sent to the sand village as Kitsune for a mission. Gaara was still the emotionless boy with eyes that radiated sheer coldness with just a short glance. When Naruto first met Gaara, he knew Gaara had been through the same pain as him. After all his eyes reflected, he could only guess.

"Yeah, yeah. I missed you too." Naruto chuckled but soon stopped when he felt a new presence surrounding them. "Gaara!" Naruto hissed, and immediately the said person released the sad inside the calabash gourd and slowly wrapped them around Naruto, faking an attack just in time for the wolf of the ANBU to come to the scene. Of course, Kakashi had the Wolf mask off at the moment.

"Naruto!" Kakashi gritted his teeth, taking a kunai out. Gaara raised his non-existing eyebrow and observed as Kakashi slowly made his way towards his student, and as if lady karma wanted revenge, Naruto's older clone and Kitsu appeared from behind the corner. Both Naruto and Gaara stared at the new presence in shock as Naruto's jaw threatened to disconnect from his cranium permanently. The older clone of Naruto looked at Kakashi and behind the mask he cursed his luck.

"Hey Kid! Stop messing around and scam!" The Naruto clone commanded the two of the youngest. Naruto looked like he was shivering from fear and Gaara just released Naruto, his arms still across his chest.

"Disturb me again and I'll kill you." Gaara hissed in annoyance. The older version of Naruto growled, as did Kitsu.

"Waaaaaaah! I'M GOING TO DIE!" Naruto flapped like a chicken while holding his bleeding leg and successfully attracted the attention of Kakashi. The Naruto with the Kitsune mask sighed and pointed at Naruto.

"Wolf, I want you to take this _idiot_ and get out of my sight!" Kakashi flinched and did as commanded. He swiftly lifted Naruto in bridal style and took off to the training grounds. Naruto's cut wasn't that deep so Kakashi found no need to go to the hospital.

When the two was out of sight, Naruto took off his Kitsune mask and stared into Gaara's eyes. "Sorry about that… But I think I have to go, I'll see you some other time okay?" With that, Naruto poofed into thin air along with Kitsu. With that, Gaara's visit was over.

**_Meanwhile,_**

"SENSEIII! I'M GOING TO DIE IF YOU DON'T STOP THE BLEEDING!" Naruto flailed in Kakashi's arms as he was carried to the training grounds.

"Well, if you _stopped moving_, you wouldn't open up the wound!" Kakashi nearly lost his patience because of the struggling bundle of orange. With a small poof Naruto felt his shadow clone disappear and instantly.

"OOOH WAIT! It doesn't hurt anymore!" Naruto struggled harder, and this time, actually put effort in trying to get away.

"OOMFH! Naruto! Don't go back to that kid!" With the mention of Gaara, Naruto stiffened still in the hands of Kakashi. Not noticing the change in Naruto's attitude, Kakshi continued his rant about the read head. "That kids eyes… they were cold, blank, they were the eyes of a murderer."

"Sensei?" Naruto's voice grew dangerously bitter with hate. Kakashi flinched at the spine-chilling aura Naruto was emitting from his body.

"Yes?" Cautiously the Wolf asked.

"I said, 'Put, me, _down_.'" Naruto snarled briefly forgetting about the fact that he was in his real body. Surprise evident on Kakashi's face, he silently put Naruto on the ground. '_Why am I so afraid of him?' _Kakashi thought to himself.

"Look Naruto, he tried to _kill_ you!" Kakashi grabbed both Naruto's shoulders firmly and gazed into his eyes.

"Is that what you really think Kakashi?"

"What's wrong with you Naruto? This isn't like you!" Kakashi demanded for an answer. Without warning, Naruto thrashed and shoved Kakashi across the field, sending Kakashi flying against a tree, penetrating 5 of them. The little jinchuriki's eyes glowed red as he approached the ANBU nin who was leaning against the tree he struck.

"What's wrong with me? This isn't like me? Are you sure you know me well enough to determine what my personality is like Kakashi-_Sensei?_" Kakashi swallowed hard. Why did he feel so intimidated by a mere child? Why was it that Kakashi felt the need to apologize? Without warning, Narto suddenly let out a blood-curdling scream, fisting his bright yellow hair and dropping to his knees.

'_Kit, Kit!' The Kyuubi inside Naruto snarled, 'snap out kit! You're not the cold-blooded Kitsune right now! .!' Naruto's dull face enraged the Kyuubi. 'Kit, unless you want me to actually come out and destroy this mundane ninja, you'd better snap back! I'll give you 3 seconds.'_

_3…_

_2… _

_1…_

As Kyuubi's voice faded, Naruto's head snapped back up and Naruto stared at his astonished teacher before grinning from ear to ear.

"Got you!" Naruto laughed like an idiot, clutching his stomach. Kakashi stared at Naruto in fascination, his half lidded eyes widening, and blinking occasionally. "Really, sensei, I feel better. I gotta go now! Bye!" With a cheerful wave, Naruto leapt through the forest without looking back. Staring at the unbelievable scene before him, Kakashi only blinked in utter surprise. Never in his life has his stoic personality crumbled so much in one day. He took a seat on a near-by rock and thought hard.

'_That was… different. Something is defiantly not right with Naruto. He acts as if it was a joke… But that was too…' _Kakashi shuddered at the memory. '_I must confront to the Hokage about this… this is no joke…'_

* * *

_A/N: Yeup, this was rushed, and this sucked, but I hope you guys enjoyed that chapter ^^ I'm still looking for a beta reader... So if anyone's interested~ :3_


	7. The New Mission

_**A/N:** Well... after my very long disapearance, I am making a reapearance with this chapter XD _  
_I am finalizing the chapters to my other stories as well, so some of them should be coming out soon. I will try and update regularly from now on, since I am on holiday, and the only hw I have is for my English Higher Literature class and my Higher Film class X3_

_I hope you enjoy the chapter for now XD _

* * *

"But… Hokage-sama…"

"Nothing is wrong with him Kakashi." The Hokage deeply sighed as he massaged his forehead. Naruto had some explaining to do.

"But… Hokage-sama… Naruto… He… He…" The great Kakashi was stuttering in the presence of the Hokage. Kakashi was very concerned about how Naruto has acted. He'd never seen the perky boy angry, or even snap. But here, sitting in front of him was the Hokage, looking as carefree as ever, inhaling the pipe, which was snug between his two cracked lips.

"Kakashi, you put too much thoughts into things." The Hokage chuckled, "It's no wonder your hair is so white." Kakashi's mouth would have dropped open if that mask of his wasn't covering it up. "Relax Kakashi, he won't turn into the nine-tails, and I assure you, he's not out of control." The Hokage stated the last sentence with so much pressure that Kakashi shut his mouth in an instant.

"Yessir." Kakashi politely bowed to his superior and left the room to find Naruto sitting in the little wooden chair next to the door.

"Kakashi-Sensei!" Naruto grinned and ran up to his teacher and hugged him tightly. Taken back by the sudden action, a bright shade of red colored his cheeks.

"Naruto?" He questioned the young boy, observing the boy more carefully than how he used to. Kakashi started to notice things in the boy, which he never noticed before; like how Naruto would always bite his lips every so often, how his eyebrows twitched every now and then and such.

"Sensei~ Do you think that old man will try and kill me?" Naruto faked a tear like a pro actor, which even made Kakashi's heart skip a beat.

"No… I really don't think he'll get mad at you." Kakashi re-assured Naruto by patting him on the back.

"UZUMAKI NARUTO!" The sudden call for the young boy startled the two.

"I'd better go…" Naruto grumbled and gently pushed the door open.

"Kids are kids after all…" Kakashi sighed and went his own way, leaving the young nin alone to talk with the Hokage.

* * *

"_What were you thinking!"_ The Hokage growled, slamming his fists onto the table. Naruto winced and put a protection around the room.

"I'm sorry Hokage-sama." Naruto bowed his head respectively. "It's just that… he was bad-mouthing Gaara… And you know… my current situation surrounding that matter didn't allow me to…"

"Naruto!" The Hokage cut him off. He looked just as tired and worn out as any other old man, as he reached out for his pipe and lit it up. He took a puff from his favorite pipe before continuing, "I just need to let you know, that there will be an important mission sent for your team. The mission will be disguised as a 'C' rank mission because the client seemed to lack the amount of money for the mission to be considered a 'B' rank mission. Any questions?"

"What is the actual mission going to be about?" Naruto's ever-so-cheerful expression hardened.

"Your given mission would be to 'escort' an old bridge builder to the named Tazuna to the Wave country." Naruto nodded, encouraging the Hokage to continue. "However, although we don't know the details, we are pretty sure that this mission is bigger than it sounds. The hidden mist ninja's are moving suspiciously."

"Right." Naruto performed his special transformation jutsu so he could become his taller self. "Should I call up the team and have them secretly tag along on our mission?" Naruto cautiously asked, but his idea was disapproved.

"I would like you to make a shadow clone of a non-existing Jounin and introduce yourself to Kakashi and let him know that you'll be following along to help him keep on eye on your other self, Naruto (the Kyuubi). Let him know that this was an order from me, and he won't object."

Naruto nodded his head, "Understood."

"HOWEVER" The Hokage startled Naruto by the sudden tone change. "Remember, that you .!"

Naruto's eyebrows contracted slightly in confusion. "Why can't I go as my other self? As the commander of the elite ANBU team?"

The Hokage took another long puff from his pipe and glared Naruto. "How do you think poor Kakashi would react if he found his commander tailing him around in a mission which was meant to be a C rank?"

Naruto scratched his head in embarrassment, "badly."

"Exactly. Now listen carefully, this is what you will have to do-"

* * *

"_Why do we only get the boring missions? I want harder missions! D rank? NO WAY! NO WAY IN HELL AM I GOING TO GO ON ANOTHER D RANK!" _Naruto screamed in the hall where the mission was usually given out. Iruka was a part of the scheme so he wasn't so surprised as to why Naruto was suddenly acting like this. Besides, this was his outer character- no one will suspect a thing. And of course, just as expected, the chuunin's in the room rolled their eyes and sighed at the childs' idiotic and childish behavior. Sasuke smirked and Sakura looked utterly embarrassed to be in the same team as blond boy. Kakashi chuckled under his breath as if he could've already guessed that Naruto would act this way sooner or later.

"Look here Naruto, I know you're enthusiastic about the missions and all, but we cannot allow you to go on a higher rank level because… well… you're just a Genin." Iruka spoke up, trying to convince the boy that he should be just satisfied with the missions he was getting.

"_Kaka-sensei~ say something! This is not cool! For an elite like me to be in a D rank mission? This is just too unreasonable!" _Naruto whined pulling at Kakashi's pants lightly.

Sakura, who had been covering her face in embarrassment, punched Naruto's head and glared at Naruto. "Who are you calling an elite? You scored the lowest in our test! Frankly, I don't even know how you passed the exam!" Naruto put on his best pouting expression and he looked up at Sakura and huffed.

"But still… to be in a D rank mission again…" Looking dejected, Naruto looked at his previous teacher and pouted. "I'm not leaving this place until I get a higher ranked mission." Naruto huffed and folded his arms in front of his chest, determined.

"Hah…." The Hokage took a puff from his smoke and shrugged his shoulders in defeat. "Iruka," he called the chuunin.

"Hai!" Iruka answered, knowing what his given command would be.

"Give them the easiest C rank mission you can find."

Then… Hell broke lose. Sasuke who had been smirking, blinked and gazed at the Hokage, surprise evident on his face. Sakura jumped up and down cheering along with Naruto and of course, the rest of the population stared at the scene before them.

"Settle down, settle down- I'll tell you about your mission right now" the room quieted down. Naruto still looked anxious and looked like he had several things to say, but he bit his lips. "Your mission is to protect a certain individual, and escort them to their original village."

"Yeah! Yeah! Who is he? Some kind of a lord? Some sort of important person right?" Naruto's eyes sparkled anxiously. Iruka smiled and wondered how Naruto could be so good at acting like a brat.

"You'll meet him soon so relax." The Hokage faced the door and called out "Hey, do you mind coming in?"

An old looking man walked through the door with a bottle of sake in his hands. While everyone's attention was on the bridge builder, Naruto dropped his act for a second and silently told himself

"Mission start."

* * *

A tall man was standing face to face with Kakashi. Truthfully, Kakashi didn't know what to make of this situation. A Jounin he had never met before was offering to help with their given mission.

"So what you're telling me is, Hokage-sama sent you over so you could help me watch over Naruto during the mission?" Kakashi asked, bewildered.

"Yes sir." Naruto straitened his stance.

"What's your name and what is your ANBU mask?" Kakashi asked, his eyes narrowing.

Naruto's eyebrows twitched in annoyance – he hasn't thought of a name yet. "My ANBU mask is a panda, and my name is Kikunosuke Shiro." Naruto mentally slapped himself in the forehead. _'Kikunosuke, seriously, that's the best I came up with?'_

"Kikunosuke… Panda mask…? I've never heard of you before-" Kakashi pointed out, obviously suspicious.

"I'm new." Naruto smirked mentally. _'It's so natural for the wolf to be suspicious of the people.'_

"And Hokage-sama assigned you to protect _my_ squad?" Kakashi raised his eyebrows and Naruto could tell that Kakashi wasn't happy about the idea of being baby-sat by someone 'his' level or lower.

"Technically, I was asked to watch over a certain member of your group…" Naruto pointed out as-a-matter-of-factly. "_Yoroshiku onegaishimasu (_Please take good care of me)" and he bowed his head politely as he was disguised as one of Kakashi's underclassmen.

"Same her." And the greeting ended here.

* * *

**_A/N:_**_ I hope you liked the chapter, although this chapter was more of just an intro of what would happen during the mission... And the next chapter will be out soon! I swear! _

_Thank you so much! _


	8. Things Aren't What They Seem To Be

_**A/N:** After a long disappearance... Hellos~ I'm back :D hahaha... Well, Kakashi finds out about Naruto, and Naruto is well... being himself... in my story. Kikunosuke turns out to be a fail because... you'll find out :) yeah my AN is filled with a bunch of cr*p XD I've been busy over summer cuz of my summer jobs and I just wanna say this out loud, I LOVE THIS ONE LITTLE KID WHO'S THE CUTEST LITTLE ANGEL EVER! he's so adorable :P_

_Hope you enjoy~_

* * *

**Things Aren't What They Seem To Be**

'_What a joke…'_ Naruto- or rather, Kikunosuke grumbled. Jumping from tree to tree going unnoticed by the rest of the team members. He watched his clone act like his sophomoric self, prancing around everywhere and getting heated up in every little negative thing said about him. Kikunosuke noticed Kakashi turning back to glance at him every once in a while, and whenever Kakashi turned, Kikunosuke would show him a thumbs up to let him know that everything was okay.

"_WHAT? Take that back!"_ Naruto howled in irritation, when the bridge builder told him that he was unreliable. Naruto honestly had to admit, he thought of telling Kakashi his real identity but he didn't want to risk-

"Guys, Guys, calm down. We need to keep an eye out for things." Kakashi shot Kikunosuke an apologetic glance who rolled his eyes and stationed himself on one of the tree branches.

"But it was _his_ fault! Calling me useless again and again!" Naruto jabbed a finger at the bridge builder's direction furiously. Kikunosuke could almost feel himself flinch about how annoying he could be seen.

"I call you useless because you are!" The bridge builder retorted, growling.

Naruto balled his fists. "Then why isn't _he_ being called useless?" Sasuke was taken back by the sudden outrage but remained silent.

"Because you are." The bridge builder unfairly concluded, "and he is not."

While the two were bickering, Kikunosuke stepped back and observed his surroundings. Something seemed a little off- no, something seemed very off. The day was sunny and bright, yet there were three noticeable water puddles on the ground. He glanced at his disciple if he had noticed anything, which to his greatest displeasure, he found that Kakashi _didn't _notice at all and mentally slapped himself. Kikunosuke drew in a breath and he jumped closer to where the others were stationed at and threw a kunai near his mentee and was just so tempted to take on his commanding position so he could command Kakashi to do something.

Kakashi's eyes snapped to where the kunai hit the ground, as did everyone else's. When Kikunosuke looked back at the water puddles to see if they've moved, he couldn't find them anywhere anymore. He cursed and decided to just show up in front of them pretending like he was on a different mission. He swiftly jumped up and landed where his kunai had been before Kakashi pulled it out of the ground. Kikunosuke was pleased to see that Sasuke immediately placed himself between the bridge builder and his enemy (in this situation, Kikunosuke, since they don't know him yet).

"What are you doing here Kikunosuke?" Kakashi asked, obvious irritation seeping out of his every pores.

"Ah sorry, sorry" Kikunosuke rubbed the back of his neck with one hand, placing the other on his hips.

"Do you know him Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked, eyes narrowing. Since no one was paying any attention to the blonde perky boy, he decided to use this chance to go and look for the 'water puddles.' He pivoted and dashed into the forest and when he felt that he was a safe distance away from the rest of his teammates, he changed into his AMBU form. Fully masked and prepared, he swiftly took his scroll out in one motion and glided his thumb on the scroll, cutting his thumb on the tree bark in the process: he had to call for Kitsu.

"Naruto-sama." Kitsu respectively bowed his head.

"Kitsu." Naruto greeted with a nod and filled his companion with all the information he needed in order to find the 'water puddles'. "Can you smell anything different around here?" Naruto asked.

Kitsu took a moment to sniff the air around him, facing every direction. "I smell something 8 o'clock sir." Kitsu said, directing his nose in that direction.

"Shit, isn't that near where those kids are?" Naruto cursed.

"What would you like me to do?" Kitsu tilted his head.

After a moments of consideration Naruto summoned up a frog and took out a blank scroll and scribbled something on it, gave it to the frog and ordered it to go deliver that scroll to the Hokage.

Okay, Kitsu, I want you to go and discretely summon Wolf please." With a nod Kitsu took off. Naruto fidgeted in spot and turned back into his real self waiting to be confronted by his teammate.

**Meanwhile with Kakashi…**

Kakashi was very close to getting a migraine from all the bickering and calling each other names when he heard a silent rustle in the bushes. He glanced towards the direction and immediately bent down to talk to the little fox whom his Captain summoned.

"Mr. Wolf, Kitsune-sama wishes to speak to you…" Kitsu whispered so that only Kakashi could hear. Kakashi nodded and followed Kitsu into the forest leaving the rest of the team with his shadow clone.

Upon arriving to where Naruto was, Kitsu disappeared in a puff and Kakashi and Naruto were left standing in an awkward moment of silence. Kakashi was surprised to see Naruto standing where he had expected his commander to be standing, and wasn't Naruto back there in the middle of the argument with everyone else?

"Naruto?" Kakashi questioned, raising his eyebrows.

Naruto thought the best way of telling him would be to transform right in front of him. So Naruto reached into his weapon pouch strapped on his leg wordlessly and he took out his ANBU mask. Kakashi tilted his head to the side and stared down at Naruto, still confused. Upon seeing Kakashi's confused expression, Naruto sighed and made the correct hand signs and transferred into his ANBU form. If Kakashi hadn't been wearing the mask he always wore, his jaw would've dislocated and hit the ground.

"Naruto- How… How… How…" Unable to say anymore than that, Kakashi just simply stared.

"Well, I really wasn't supposed to be telling you, but I might be allowed to erase your memories of this event when we go back to town, so I'll let you know." Naruto's voice was back to being gruff. The way it was always gruff when he turned into that form.

"Sir?" Kakashi straightened up and reached for his ANBU mask as well but Naruto held up a hand, stopping him.

"No, don't. I just needed you to know what my true form was because I have a bad feeling about this mission and I really don't want to give you a heart attack by suddenly knowing how to perform some Jutsu's in my original form." Naruto sighed and slid his fingers through his hair.

"What bad feeling sir?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto stared in disbelief. "You didn't notice?"

"If you mean by the three water puddles, then yes I did notice, but I think I could finish them off whoever it is." Kakashi said confidently before narrowing his eye. "Or do you doubt me sir?"

Naruto chuckled. "No I don't doubt your ability. I'm just going to get rid of them before they get us in any way. Sasuke and Sakura are just genin after all." Naruto added the last part kind of like an after thought but Kakashi understood. Those two had not experienced their first kill yet. They haven't been in a real battle yet.

"So how do you plan on doing this without the two knowing who you really are Kitsune-sama?" Kakashi's question brought Naruto back from his trail of thoughts.

"Well… that's kind of where you come in. I will be leaving my idiot clone with you lot, so I want you to create a clone of yourself and leave your clone with the group. The real you, I want the real you to back me up. Oh and let them set up camp about three miles away from where they are and make them rest. I have a bad feeling about tomorrow…" Naruto became his other persona and a cold smile found its way across his face. "Is that understood?"

Kakashi felt shivers running down his spine, "Yes sir."

The two left both of their clones alone with the group, still bickering about Naruto's idiocy and went to search for the puddle. Naruto had summoned Kitsu again as he needed his little companions assistance to figure out where the three devils were hiding.

"I smell them half a mile ahead." Kitsu spoke as he lead the two ninja's to where the 'water puddles' were.

"There it is." Naruto squinted his eyes and pointed ahead of them. Kakashi followed Naruto's fingers to find he was right. Three unnatural water puddles were in the middle of the streets. "I'm going to try electrocuting them. If they take human form, we each take one down. Kitsu, blast them with the most excruciating flames ever." Kitsu smirked and Kakashi stared at the two.

They stopped at a nearby tree, their chakra signatures well hidden, and Kakashi watched as Naruto performed the correct hand gestures when a lethal amount of electric bolts shot out of Naruto and hit the three water puddles. As Naruto had predicted the three water puddles made a damaging sound and poofed to their original forms.

"Now!" With that order, Kakashi, Kitsu, and Naruto all charged at one each and destroyed them in their own ways. Kakashi used his own creation, Chidori, Kitsu, just like Naruto has ordered, used blazing flames, and Naruto used a Jutsu which compressed the air around the selected person and exploding their insides; it was a slow and suffocating way of killing, just the way he liked it.

The three approached their kill before Naruto dismissed Kitsu. Kakashi looked at the bodies and observed out loud, "They look like the hidden mist village… This mission seems to be a lot more than we-"

"Expected. This is why Hokage-sama has sent me out here, to keep an eye on things." Naruto finished Kakashi's sentence and flipped one of the bodies with his feet. "You need to talk to the bridge builder. As soon as possible, and let the kids listen in. They need to know what they're up against… Or at least, they need to be on their toes. I don't like them, but I don't like my teammates dying unnecessarily. Kakashi nodded and looked up at his captain.

"What about the bodies?"

Naruto stared at Kakashi in confusion. "Don't you know the protocol? I leave, and you dispose." Naruto winked and took off to where the campsite was.

Watching his captain leave, Kakashi sighed and hunched down. "But to think that Kitsune-sama was Naruto…" he mumbled to himself. Of course he had his suspicions, like some times when Naruto seemed to be a little off… But to actually think… Shaking his thoughts away, he got up and collected the bodies and cursed. "Leave it to Kitsune-sama to purposely leave me a mess…"

**Meanwhile, the bridge builder and the rest at camp…**

"_Ahhhhhh! Bathroom! Bathroom!"_ Naruto howled in aggravation holding onto his crotch, running around in circles.

"THEN GO!" The remaining four yelled at Naruto, synchronized in a face-palm.

"_Nnnnn-!" _Naruto jumped into the bushes and poofed. The real Naruto now, stayed for about 10 seconds and walked out, smiling like a sunshine. "Much better" He grinned a toothy grin that only he could probably manage and walked over to the log he was sitting on before.

A few moments later Kakashi stood up from where he was sitting, "Hmm…" He said while walking into his tent. Approximatly five seconds later he walked out and sat back in his spot. Naruto mentally slapped his forehead but he decided to bring up the topic so that it would be easier for Kakashi to 'interrogate' the bridge builder. Of course, interrogation without the whole lethal instrument thing.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto waved his arms high up in the air 'trying' to grab his mentor's attention.

"Yes sir- I mean, what is it this time Naruto?" Kakashi sounded tired, but he needed to keep up this act. Truth to be told, Kakashi found it very difficult to call his superior in position by his first name, but he knew he had no choice but to, if he wanted to keep this charade up.

"This mission is so easy!" Naruto scoffed and turned to the other two of his team members. "Right? Right?" He asked each of them.

"Yeah.." Sasuke didn't look at Naruto but his expression said it all; this mission was too easy.

"Naruto, what do you expect, we're still new at all this!" Sakura slammed her fist on Naruto's head. Naruto instinctively reached for the pain and whined.

"Actually…" Kakashi cleared his throat and turned his attention to the bridge builder. "How about you tell us what our real mission is?"

The three looked up and gawked while the bridge builder sat silently, not able to face any of them.

"it'll be easier for us to protect you if we know what the objective of the enemy is…" Kakashi egged him on into telling.

After a long moment of silence, the bridge builder sighed defeated, "Well, you know my name is Tazuna.." He suddenly looked uncomfortable "Actually… This is meant to be at least a B rank mission.." he looked away. Naruto and Kakashi briefly made eye contact but focused their attention back on Tazuna. "There's a man… Who's after my life…" He hesitated a bit more before continuing. "I don't know if you know him or not, or if you even ever heard of him… But his name is a man named Gatou." Naruto's eyes widened at the mention of the name.

"That son of a bitch has guts…" Naruto growled under his breath. All eyes turned to look at him and no one decided to say anything because Naruto had a dangerous glint in his eyes that promised pain.

"Anyways, Gatou is after me and he's filthy rich… So he's been sending ninja after ninja to try and kill me" He finished, looking away.

"But why is he after you?" Sasuke brought up a good point. Someone with that much power over money wouldn't just target anybody, much less a mere bridge builder.

"Well, Gatou owns a shipping company and he had his eyes on the Wave country for a long time…" He trailed off. "But I couldn't hire ninja's as a B-rank mission because… Our country is very poor.. and we didn't have money to spare…" He added the next bit quietly.

"What do you guys think?" Kakashi asked the group but he was staring at Naruto in particular.

Sasuke was the first to speak up, "I don't think we should drop this mission. Nothing bad has happened yet, and we've come pretty far." Sasuke said his thoughts out loud and looked around.

"Yeah, yeah!" Naruto piped up, "I agree with Sasuke! Believe it!" Tazuna looked grateful by the statement.

Kakashi grimced when Naruto said 'believe it'. Now knowing that Naruto is the captain of his ANBU team, everything seemed… odd. Nothing seemed to make sense anymore.

Noticing the sun going down, Kakashi stood up and ordered each of them to go sleep in individual tents except for Naruto. "Kit- Naruto, I'd like you to stand night-guard with me just in case something happened."

Naruto pretended to whine, "Why me-?"

Kakashi shrugged, "With you chatting the night away is the safest way to keep me awake." Sakura and Sasuke both stared at their teacher but didn't argue as they were tired and wanted to sleep. "I'll wake you guys up early. We're leaving at around 3am."

"Yes" Sasuke said, eyeing Naruto. He didn't like the idea of Naruto staying up with his teacher.

"Okay…" The look of dejection Sakura had could only mean she was really hoping to share a room with Sasuke but is unable to, so… she's sad.

"Thank you…" Tazuna thanked the four and crawled into his tent. Sasuke and Sakura soon followed Tazuna's example and crawled into their individual tents.

Naruto silently made a barrier around him and Kakashi so that no one else could hear what they were talking about.

"So, what do you think Kitsune-sama?" Kakashi asked the moment he knew Naruto finished with his seal.

All the humor and childlike features were gone from Naruto's face. "Well… All I can say is… we'd better hope for the worst… or the best, depending on…" Naruto let his sentence trail off.

"Depending on what?" Kakashi asked, although he could already guess the answer.

"Zabuza…" That was the only thing Naruto had to say to earn Kakashi's understading.

* * *

_**A/N:** So... You like? :D Reviews appreciated :P _


End file.
